Get off work and become a magical girl

Chapter 245 One Night

Because she had to work outside during the day, Cuique was responsible for the housework after dinner that day. By the time she finished washing the dishes and putting away the tools, it was already 7:30 in the evening.

Shaking her hands which were slightly damp from soaking in water for a long time, Cuiqiao walked into the living room and saw Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang sitting on the sofa playing with their mobile phones.

Xia Liang's perception always seemed to be sharper than Lin Xiaolu's, so he noticed the passing of the jadeite at the first moment and waved his hand, saying, "Thank you for your hard work."

Lin Xiaolu, who was standing by, raised her head belatedly and said, "Thank you for your hard work."

"Nothing much. How was today's special training?" Without repeating the greetings, Cuiqiao walked into the living room and asked directly.

"The progress is just so-so... After all, what Sister Hong teaches is quite difficult."

Xia Liang blinked: "But to be honest, after studying for such a long time, there are quite a few contents that I don't even know what I'm learning."

"I know it's hard, so I just want to keep moving forward."

Cuique nodded: "Learning the technique should be a relatively long-term thing, but our time is limited, and my personal ability is also limited, so the task is so tight now. I can only trouble you for a while."

"No, how should I put it..."

Puffing up his cheeks, Xia Liang exhaled: "Mathematics and physics, in many cases, it is really not possible to advance by hard work alone..."

"Stuck?" Delphinium walked up to the two people.

"It's not that bad yet, but it's really, really, really difficult."

Using three "very difficult"s in a row to express his situation, Xia Liang silently glanced at Lin Xiaolu beside him. Seeing that she still had no reaction, he slowly said, "So, I still have to go to class with Sister Hong in the evening. When I think about the arduous tasks waiting for me, it feels so difficult. Is there anyone who can encourage me who is helpless at this time..."

"Come on." Lin Xiaolu patted her shoulder.

"I really need encouragement right now." The smile on Xia Liang's face froze for a moment, but he quickly continued as if nothing had happened.

"Like this?" After hearing her say this repeatedly, even the most dull-witted person would understand what she wanted to express, so Delphinium squatted down on the spot, clenched a fist with one hand, and slightly extended it forward.

Looking at the fist that Cuiqiao stretched out in front of him, Xia Liang's breath stagnated.

"Young senior."

"what happened?"

"Who taught you to encourage others like this?"

"Hmm...you often do this during battle, right?"

Delphinium pondered for a moment, then opened her clenched fists again: "Or do you like this? Put your palms together first?"

"… Let's fist bump."

The communication between the two ended with Xia Liang's compromise.

The fists of the two men touched lightly in mid-air, and then they each pushed forward with force, and then moved apart.

"come on".

Delphinium encouraged.

"……Um."

Xia Liang also responded with a smile after a brief silence: "By the way, the new clothes are very beautiful."

"Let's forget about that."

After somewhat awkwardly brushing off the topic, Cuiqiao turned around and looked at Lin Xiaolu who was standing beside her: "Okay, we should go to class, Baimei."

"it is good."

Lin Xiaolu, who had been watching the interaction between the two silently, turned off her phone and stood up. For some reason, Cuiqiao actually saw some "well-behaved" in this rebellious girl.

"Let's go, Delphinium."

Lin Xiaolu said this, took two steps forward and followed behind Cuiqiao. Then, when Cuiqiao turned around and left, she chuckled twice at Xia Liang beside her, then stretched out two fingers and made a victory gesture.

Xia Liang rolled his eyes at her and was too lazy to talk to her.

Seeing that Xia Liang didn't respond to her, Lin Xiaolu didn't continue to provoke the other party, but grabbed her phone and followed Cuique's pace. While walking, she handed over her phone: "Cuique, do you want to see the photos I took of you this afternoon?"

"What photo?" Delphinium asked curiously.

"New clothes." Lin Xiaolu said as a matter of course.

"…As long as you think it looks good."

After a moment of silence, Cuique did not take the phone handed over by Lin Xiaolu, but replied helplessly: "I don't really care about these things."

"Take a look. I took so many photos that it took me a long time to choose. I even spent a long time editing them."

Lin Xiaolu said in a coquettish voice: "I spent all my time before and after meals doing this. If you don't watch it, I'll have worked in vain."

"I will be going to the national assessment soon. How can you have so much free time..."

Cuiqiao glanced at Lin Xiaolu and was about to start a lecture, but suddenly stopped as if she had thought of something. She did not continue what she had said before, but changed the subject: "What kind of photo needs to be specially retouched for a long time?"

"Dang Dang Dang!"

Lin Xiaolu took advantage of the situation and ran to the front of the Delphinium with her phone in hand, showing her phone screen: "This is where I have to show off my talent - Wow!"

Then, before she could finish her words, she walked backwards onto the stairs, her feet slipped out of her hands, and the phone flew out.

The short cry stopped after just a moment, because fortunately Delphinium reached out in time and grabbed Lin Xiaolu's arm.

This posture lasted for several seconds. After the two people looked at each other for a moment, Lin Xiaolu realized it belatedly and grabbed the stair railing with her other hand.

"you……"

Delphinium glared and was about to say something scolding, but she stopped herself halfway because her heart kept emphasizing her current identity and that she should not show overly excited emotions. The conflict between emotion and reason forced her to stop and take a deep breath.

After calming down a little, she narrowed her eyes, stretched out her finger, and pointed at the stairs behind Lin Xiaolu: "Be careful when you walk, and look behind you. You almost fell down just now. You are not in the state after transformation now, and you are very fragile."

"Well, I'm sorry."

Lin Xiaolu didn't refute anything, but honestly bowed her head and admitted her mistake: "I was a little too excited."

She lowered her head like this, and even if Cuique stared at her, she could only see her forehead covered with hair, which made it impossible to communicate emotionally. After a moment of stalemate, she could only reach out and knock on Lin Xiaolu's forehead.

"I am telling you this seriously, please be more careful next time."

Once again lightly bringing up the topic, Cuiqiao walked to the side, picked up the phone that Lin Xiaolu had just dropped from her hand, checked it, and after making sure there was no damage, she turned it over.

Then, she saw the photo that Lin Xiaolu wanted her to see just now.

The photo shows Delphinium, who is still wearing the cheongsam. The background has been replaced with a dreamy fairytale style, and the other team members who were originally in the background have all been cut out. These changes instantly changed the atmosphere of the scene a lot, and the jubilant and lively atmosphere has faded a lot, and even seems a little deserted, but the people in the photo have also become more prominent.

"Why did you think of repairing it like this?" Cuique asked after putting the phone back in Lin Xiaolu's hand.

"It just suddenly occurred to me that there seemed to be a similar character in an animation I watched before."

Because she almost made a big mistake, Lin Xiaolu's previous excitement has disappeared a lot. But when talking about the magical girl animation she once liked, she still has no grudges: "The character in the animation is a magical girl in the style of Donghua Province. She is very handsome and stylish. She is a senior character who is very worthy of reliance. Because of her high popularity, there are even spin-offs. The feeling of your new clothes is very similar to her, Delphinium, so I want to try to see what the effect is when I put on the background of the animation..."

"Anime character?"

Lin Xiaolu's words made Cuique have a somewhat strange guess in her mind, so she subconsciously asked, "Do you remember what the name of that cartoon character is?"

"I remember, it was a magical girl named Longdan. What's wrong?" Lin Xiaolu blinked in confusion.

"...jeweled scepter."

"what?"

"Nothing, just something that came to my mind."

Making a mental note to Emerald, Delphinium walked up the stairs expressionlessly, "Okay, enough time has been wasted. We should get back to class."

"okay."

Lin Xiaolu didn't doubt him, she put her phone in her pocket, and followed him holding the handrail of the stairs: "What are we learning today? Or are we going to continue the rope skipping training?"

"We'll do that a little later. Today we need to check the growth progress of your magic suit." Delphinium said in a calm tone.

"Didn't we check it last week?"

"During the rapid growth stage, rapid inspection and correction are naturally needed, otherwise it will be too late to find out that there is a problem with the direction."

"Oh, but my magic costume hasn't changed much this week."

"There's none?"

Delphinium looked at Lin Xiaolu in surprise: "I have deliberately increased the intensity of use, but there is still no change."

"Yes."

Lin Xiaolu nodded, and then as if she had thought of something, she added: "I'm not being lazy! I'm working hard to increase my usage, and I'm also practicing according to your advice, Delphinium. It's not what I want!"

"I believe you, or rather, I can see it."

Cuique had no doubts, and seemed to have not considered the possibility that Lin Xiaolu was lazy. She said seriously: "This may not be your problem, but the problem with the practice policy I assigned to you."

"How could that be? It can't be Delphinium's fault anyway."

Lin Xiaolu subconsciously retorted: "I don't think there's anything wrong with this kind of practice. Besides, Xia Liang and Bai Jingxuan also train this way."

"Because your magic costume is very special."

Delphinium said bluntly: "There are very few magic suits with changeable forms in the history of the entire country, and there is almost no information available. The experience that applies to most magical girls may not apply to you."

"Not applicable?" Lin Xiaolu pointed at herself blankly.

Walking down the stairs, Delphinium ignored the darkness and entered the training grounds, accurately pressing the light switch on the wall.

"Well, since I don't have a reference, I can only guess. According to my original idea, since the form is changeable, each specific form should have the possibility to continue to grow. That's why I proposed the training plan before."

The suddenly lit light cast a shadow on the side of Delphinium. She tilted her head and said thoughtfully, "I think we should verify it again. If your magic suit has not grown at all, then according to my experience, there are only two possibilities left."

"Which two?" Lin Xiaolu asked curiously as she followed Delphinium into the training ground, took off her down jacket and hung it on the hanger beside her.

"The first is that the changeable magic suit has no growth potential, because the various forms themselves are a kind of growth, replacing the possibility of the magic suit's growth."

Delphinium walked to a corner of the venue and folded her arms: "Anyway, first analyze your magic suit and let me verify it."

Lin Xiaolu did as she was told, holding the white scepter in her hand and handing it over, while continuing to ask, "What about the second possibility?"

"As for the second possibility..."

Taking over Lin Xiaolu's scepter, Cuiqiao sensed the fluctuations of magic power emitted by the magic suit while staring at the four crystals lined up on the scepter: "It is very likely that you have not yet mastered all the forms of your magic suit, so the current magic suit does not even meet the standard of 'just born', it is just a 'semi-finished product'."

"Eh? This is still only a semi-finished product?"

Lin Xiaolu said in surprise: "But I can clearly use it normally, and it feels very powerful?"

"Whether the magic suit is complete or not has no absolute correlation with whether one has sufficient combat power."

Delphinium shook her head. "In short, these are just conjectures. I have to verify them first. Even if the conjecture is true, you don't need to worry, because it does not conflict with our courses. Whether your magic suit is 'complete' at this stage is not that important for the exam."

As she said this, she released the magic power from her hands and began to carefully sense the changes in Lin Xiaolu's magic outfit compared to a week ago.

About a minute later, she opened her eyes with a slightly complicated expression.

The bad news is that Lin Xiaolu's feeling was not wrong, that is, her magic suit did not undergo any changes or growth during this week.

The good news, or rather, Delphinium was not sure whether it was good or bad news, was that Delphinium could feel that the third crystal on the scepter had begun to emit faint magical fluctuations.

This means that Lin Xiaolu's efforts were not in vain, but the effort she poured into her own magic suit was not to make it grow, but to incubate the currently unknown third form.

The reason why it may be good news is that it means that Lin Xiaolu's growth direction in the next period of time has become relatively clear. Directed efforts are always more efficient than directionless exploration.

What made Cuique hesitate about this "good news" was that she had a vague premonition that just as the second form of Lin Xiaolu's magic costume had some kind of inextricable relationship with her own magic costume, the third form of this magic costume might have a lot in common with Anya.

Lin Xiaolu doesn’t know Anya’s combat style and methods now, and naturally doesn’t know what kind of magic suit Anya uses, but the truth will come out sooner or later, and she will know about this one day.

At that time, would Lin Xiaolu have some associations? For example, why is it that part of her magic outfit is similar to her mother's, while part of it is similar to the "predecessor" Cuique?
Delphinium was not very willing to think further along this line of thought, because no matter how she thought about it, she seemed to be unable to avoid constructing more lies for it, and she actually didn't want to continue adding weight to the scale of lies and truth.

The more weights you add, the more of a mess will be when the balance of the scale collapses.

Thinking about such a question that was too complicated and profound for a child, Cuique could only keep a straight face and pretend nothing had happened to state her guess to Lin Xiaolu.

Then, as the class began, she deliberately put these chaotic thoughts behind her.

……

……

At ten o'clock in the evening, the class ended as usual.

Not only Lin Xiaolu, but Xia Liang was also liberated at the same time. The two met by chance on the way back to the room, and then returned to their respective rooms bickering as usual.

Bai Jingxuan was relatively free, because her special training instructor, Aso Yuanxiang, did not need to go to work during the day, so her classes were finished during the day. In the evening, after playing games with the Bai'an City team and reading a book alone in the room, she was urged by Cuiqiao, who was off get out of class, to wash up and go to bed. After settling the juniors, the director of the Strategy Bureau, who had been working hard all day, returned to her unchanging study and began to finish her work for the day. The lights in the study were on until twelve o'clock, and then they were extinguished with Cuiqiao's slightly tired sigh.

After washing, changing clothes, chatting with Aso Yuanxiang who stayed up late to watch TV, and saying goodnight to Hongsi who also worked overtime until late at night, Cuiqiao returned to her own room, checked the message on her mobile phone, threw the phone aside, and fell heavily on her single bed.

"Another day's work."

She murmured, raised her right hand, put her wrist over her eyes, and let out a long breath.

The magical girl's body will not feel obvious fatigue, but mental exhaustion and mental loss are still unavoidable. For Delphinium, who is forced to maintain the transformed state, sleep is not a means to relieve fatigue, but a way to empty the mind and stay away from mental exhaustion.

She didn't need to rest her body, she just needed to empty her mind and feel the tranquility and peace alone.

In the silent room, there was no other noise except for the extremely faint sound of breathing. The darkness became the best shelter, separating her from the disturbances she had to face during the day. Delphinium closed her eyes, feeling as if she was floating on a dark river, drifting with the flow.

Then, at some point, in the silence, there was a knock on the door.

The sound was so soft and weak that she would doubt whether it was her hallucination, so she did not get up immediately. It was not until the second knock on the door that she was sure that it was not her hallucination, but someone was really knocking on her door.

When she opened the door, she saw Bai Jingxuan standing outside her door with a pillow in her arms.

"What's wrong?" she asked, trying to keep her voice as low as possible.

"I can't sleep." Bai Jingxuan also answered in a low voice.

"You still can't sleep so late?"

Delphinium glanced at the wall clock. It was already one in the morning. "Did you encounter any problems?"

Bai Jingxuan didn't say anything, but just stared at Delphinium at the door.

Being stared at in this way, no one would be able to endure for too long, so Cuique had no choice but to open the door and allow Bai Jingxuan to come in.

"so?"

She was somewhat helpless and asked, "What's going on?"

"I want to sleep with my mother." Bai Jingxuan said.

"Oh, you want to be with mom... huh?"

Delphinium was halfway through her speech when she realized something was wrong with what the other person said: "Why?"

"No reason."

Bai Jingxuan tightened her arms around the pillow and said, "I just want to sleep with you."

"Of course you can, but...my mom's bed isn't that big."

Looking back at her single bed, Cuique turned to Bai Jingxuan and said, "Wouldn't it be more comfortable to sleep in your own big bed? Why do you have to squeeze yourself in here?"

"…Because this is the only time Sister Xiaolu is not here."

Bai Jingxuan pouted: "Recently, Sister Xiaolu has always been with Mom during the day. Mom, you haven't been with me for a long time."

Delphinium understood.

In fact, she herself has noticed this problem. Rather, she has tried very hard to find a balance between the two so that no child would feel left out. But at the moment, judging from the facts, she is afraid that she is not doing very well.

Bai Jingxuan is very sensible, which means that she will not take the initiative to conflict with other team members, but it does not mean that she does not have her own ideas. Rather, as long as she is determined about something, her stubbornness is second to none in the Fangting City team.

In other words, the moment she appeared at Delphinium's door holding a pillow, it was a sign of no turning back.

Based on Cuiqiao's understanding of Bai Jingxuan, she had no doubt that if she rejected Bai Jingxuan now, this girl would rather stand at the door of her room with a pillow in her arms all night.

Thinking of this, she really couldn't bring herself to refuse. In addition, she had already done a lot of psychological work on herself during this period of time, and was able to block out the idea of ​​"a middle-aged uncle sleeping in the same bed with an underage girl who was not related to him" from her mind, thereby weakening her moral guilt.

"Okay, then mommy will sleep with you."

Maybe there is something abnormal about me now?

Cuiqiao thought with some self-mockery, but still kept an expressionless face, and just lay down in the bed with Bai Jingxuan.

Although there was a single bed in the room, because Cuiqiao was small and Bai Jingxuan was just a child, the two of them didn't feel too crowded on the bed. It was more like Cuiqiao's body temperature was low, and Bai Jingxuan was a young and energetic little stove, so when Bai Jingxuan got into the quilt, the originally cold quilt suddenly became much warmer.

To be honest, it's a bit comfortable.

Such a thought flashed through Delphinium's mind, but she quickly shook her head in an attempt to put this dangerous idea aside.

And the most important thing is that before, Cuiqiao had slept with Xia Liang due to some coincidence. Compared with Xia Liang's disturbing sleeping posture, Bai Jingxuan's sleeping posture can be said to be regular.

This was completely different from her usual clinginess. When Bai Jingxuan said they were sleeping together, she really just slept together. Not only did she not touch him at all, but she also lay on her side properly, without any intention of occupying the space of the lilac. Such civilized behavior made the lilac, who was a little wary before, feel guilty for her thoughts and could not help but secretly glance in Bai Jingxuan's direction.

Then, she found that Bai Jingxuan's eyes were closed and opened, and the open eye was staring straight at her.

——“Puff, cough, cough, cough…”

Delphinium almost couldn't catch its breath and coughed violently a few times.

"What's wrong with Mom?" Bai Jingxuan asked with concern.

"…Nothing, my throat just suddenly felt a little itchy."

Delphinium tried to suppress the strange emotion in her voice and asked in a calm voice: "What about you? Why don't you sleep and keep looking at me?"

"I want to see when my mother falls asleep." Bai Jingxuan answered honestly.

"…Does it matter when I fall asleep?" Delphinium asked curiously.

"Ah."

"why?"

"Because after mom falls asleep I can hold her in my arms while sleeping..." Bai Jingxuan said in a very small voice, while shrinking the lower half of her face into the quilt.

"...Can't you sleep like this now?" Delphinium said, looking at the ceiling.

"Ah."

"Why not just hug?"

After thinking for a while, Cuique simply turned sideways and looked at Bai Jingxuan: "Mom won't care about your request."

"Because mom doesn't seem to like being crowded together with others when sleeping."

Bai Jingxuan blinked her eyes outside the quilt: "I guessed."

"You guessed it right, Xiaoxuan is really smart."

Delphinium smoothed the hair that fell from the side of her cheek and combed it behind her back: "But it's okay. If you want, it's okay to sleep with me holding you like this."

"I don't want it." Bai Jingxuan shook the half of her head outside the quilt.

"Really?" Delphinium looked straight at her.

"Well, because I don't want to make mom uncomfortable." Bai Jingxuan answered honestly: "So mom, you should fall asleep first, so that I can hold you while sleeping."

"Then I'll go to sleep?" Delphinium confirmed.

"Okay, good night, mom."

"Okay, good night."

Cuiqiao said this, then moved forward slightly, stretched out her hand, and gently placed it on Bai Jingxuan's shoulder.

"……Mother?"

"what happened?"

"Um...your hand?" Bai Jingxuan asked uncertainly.

"Ah, isn't this okay?"

Delphinium looked a little embarrassed and said, "Do we really have to sleep in each other's arms?"

"Well, I...I actually want to sleep like that."

Bai Jingxuan struggled for a while, then calmly succumbed to her own desires: "But, now that it's like this, I think it's okay."

"no problem?"

"Well, no problem."

"That's good."

Then the room fell silent again.

A long time passed, and I didn't know what time it was. When Cuiqiao was half asleep and half awake, I heard Bai Jingxuan's gentle voice again.

"Mother."

"what happened?"

"Mr. Aso told me that if I were to go to the country to take the exam, I might encounter some problems."

"What kind of problem?"

"That's right, because I have the same magic power as Cansou, so she said that every time I become that powerful state, the nature of my magic will become different from that of others, or in other words, it will become very similar to those bad guys in Claw Mark. In this way, I will probably be recognized, and then I may be regarded as a bad person by everyone in the country."

"Did she tell you that?"

"Ah."

"Then what do you think?"

"Ok?"

"Do you think you're one of those bad guys from Claw Mark?"

"of course not!"

"Really? That's fine then."

"Ah? Is it okay?" Bai Jingxuan was a little confused: "But it is indeed the magic power of the remnant beast after all..."

"Yes, that's fine, because mom told you, right? What matters is never how others see you, but how you see yourself."

In a half-asleep state, Kuizi lowered her voice and said, "No matter how others define your life, only what you want and believe in is the real you."

"Is that so?" Bai Jingxuan was still a little uncertain.

"That's right." Delphinium was quite sure.

"But I don't think I can completely ignore these things. If I still can't control my magic power and get discovered..."

Bai Jingxuan's voice was a little stagnant: "I don't want to be regarded as a claw mark, and I don't want to be regarded as a crippled beast."

"it does not matter."

Delphinium said in a soft voice: "No such thing will happen, because even if it really comes to that, I'm there."

"Mom is..."

"I'm here, so I won't let that happen."

Delphinium's voice became softer and softer: "Does this make you feel at ease?"

"……Um."

Bai Jingxuan's voice also calmed down: "I feel relieved."

She lay there for a while, looking at Delphinium's sleeping face with her eyes outside the quilt. After a while, she whispered, "Mom."

"If you don't sleep, I'll be angry."

"I like you the most."

Bai Jingxuan suddenly said this.

Then the room became quiet again in an instant.

This silence lasted much longer than before, so much so that Bai Jingxuan herself didn't know whether Cuique had heard this or not, or whether she had fallen asleep.

After a long time, she finally heard the vague voice of Delphinium coming from the other side:
"…Thank you, Mom is very happy, good night."

After hearing this sentence, Bai Jingxuan took a long time to figure out its content, but when she read it carefully, she felt happy.

She took one last look at Delphinium, which seemed to have fallen asleep, and then closed her eyes with peace of mind.

——"Good night, Mom."

With a whisper, the night came to an end.

(End of this chapter)